Linda Kathleen Baswell, 75, of Overland Park, KS passed away peacefully on Monday, May 21st, 2018. Visitation will be held Thursday, May 31st at 12:30pm followed by the Funeral service at 2:00pm at McGilley and Hoge Chapel, 8024 Santa Fe Drive, Overland Park, KS with burial at Antioch Pioneer Cemetery, 7500 Antioch Rd., Merriam, KS.
Linda Kathleen (Collins) Baswell was born on Easter Sunday, April 25, 1943 in Kansas City, MO to Carmen Elizabeth (Sarmiento) and William Corbett Collins. As a young girl, Linda enjoyed music and learned to play the piano. During her teen years, she witnessed the rise of Elvis Presley and his new kind of rock and roll music that made her a lifelong fan. While Linda was in high school she was hired to work at Hodgkin Powder Company on Shawnee Mission Parkway and earned a penny for each bullet she loaded with gun powder. After she graduated from Shawnee Mission North High School Linda married in August of 1961 and began to start a family. She took the bus to go to work at Commerce Bank in downtown Kansas City, MO while she was expecting their first child. She stayed home to be a full-time mom and housewife after David was born and had two more children, Stephen and Laura, over the next eight years. As the children got older she went to work at Harper's Fabrics and The Jones Store in Prairie Village, KS as well as The Jones Store at the Metcalf South Mall in Overland Park, KS. In August of 1981, Linda started working at Pyramid Life Insurance Company in Mission, KS in the Accounting Department and was employed there for 27 years before retiring in 2008. She made many lifelong friends at work whom she truly adored and enjoyed spending time with over the years. She was an amazing seamstress and made several prom dresses and Halloween costumes for her children and grandchildren. Occasionally she would play herself a song on the piano. In retirement, she enjoyed reading mystery and romance novels, listening to music, going out to eat with her friends, spending time with her kids and grandkids and watching Royals baseball. She also loved going to the movies with her friends and grandkids. She went to the movies sometimes once a week during her retirement years. Linda was preceded in death by her parents and is survived by her son, David and his wife, Penny; her son, Stephen; her daughter, Laura and her husband, Rich; her five grandchildren, Derek, Alissa and her husband, Danny, Cannon, Carter and Collin; her two great grandchildren, Isla and Finnigan; her sister, Patrice and her husband, Robert; her nephew, Jim and his wife, Stephanie; her nephew, Marco and her great niece, Jaina. We love you Mom and Grandma, aka Mamaw, and we all will miss you so much!
